Gopher Busters

This morning as we were eating breakfast, Jake looked out in the backyard and asked why our grass and dirt had been dug up in a certain area. Jay immediately said, "Oh great...gophers." We had a gopher problem at one time at our last house, and they are really hard to get rid of. And, in case you've never experienced a gopher problem, until you get rid of the gophers, they destroy your backyard. Jay took the kids out to show them that if there was one hole, there would be another one nearby. Sure enough, they uncovered the holes and got a little gopher lesson from Jay. He then went inside to take a shower, and Jake and Addi declared that they were going to stand watch and wait for the gopher to come out. Jay told them that the gopher wouldn't be coming out anytime soon, but they were not deterred.

After standing watch for a few minutes, Jake got the brilliant idea that he was going to flood the gopher out of his hole. So, he turned the hose on and waited. A couple minutes later, I heard Addi scream and they came running in to tell me that the gopher had stuck his head out and gone back down. They considered this quite a victory, and decided that this method was definitely working, so Jake got back to work flooding the hole. Sure enough, a couple minutes after that, Addi ran in to tell me that Jake had gotten that little bugger to come out and had chased him up against the wall at the side of the house. He was now guarding him so that he would not get away. I then went out to keep watch, while they ran up to get Jay to deal with it. Needless to say, Jay was thrilled at their success. He got his big shovel and was about to deal with it (snake style), but Jake became very distraught that Jay was going to kill the innocent little creature. Apparently, killing poisonous, deadly snakes is okay, but not furry little rat-like things. I started to explain to him that we were not killing him just for the sake of killing him, but that this one tiny little critter was about to set to work on destroying our entire backyard. Still, Jake was not having it. So instead, Jay helped Jake to scoop the the gopher into a big bucket, and then Jake and Addi walked it down to the end of our street and let him go down in the canyon. I'm really hoping that the gopher hadn't grown too accustomed to his new home in our backyard and doesn't try to make his way back. If he does, he'll have Jake to deal with!

And, I'm sure this will come as no surprise, but Jake then declared that he is now going to start a company called Gopher Busters. Anybody in the area have a gopher problem that needs dealt with?

The Gopher Holes

The very proud "Gopher Busters"

Off to set the gopher free